Quantum Scrambled Eggs
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Chapter 7
Lina didn't make the trip to the next village very easy, but then again, have you ever tried to carry a squirming, yelling, hitting baby several miles? It was a lot like that, except that the 'baby' was a teenager and many times as loud, heavy, and uncooperative.
"Gourry…" Lina growled, after she'd calmed down a bit from all the screaming and wailing protests, but still while they were well short of their destination, "Put me down now… OR I'LL BLAST YOU IN THE HEAD WITH A FIREBALL!"
Several options flashed through Gourry's mind, the foremost being something along the lines of" "DROP THE LITTLE GIRL AND DIVE BEHIND THAT RISE AT THE EDGE OF THE ROAD FOR COVER!" That was an instant did he realized something…
"Hey Lina?" Gourry asked stopping his walk as if to put her down, "Fireballs explode on contact, don't they?"
"Yeah… why?" Lina asked as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Oh, nothing…" Gourry said cheerfully as he resumed walking, without putting her down, "except that if you hit me with one at such close range you'd be hitting yourself too."
Lina blinked at him and then began again to scream and kick again.
• • • • • • • • • • •
"Ahhhh…" Gourry sighed as he relived himself into his bedpan, he would resume his watch on Lina's door momentarily, just as soon as he finished his business.
Indeed, he'd just finished when an explosion, the kind that were associated with a Fireball spell, rocked the inn. Rushing out into the hall Gourry saw Lina leaning up against her door.
"What? What's going on?" Gourry asked as he rushed to her side.
"Bad guys." Lina replied as smoke began to leak out from the cracks of the door.
"Well… did you get em?" Gourry asked.
"I dunno." Lina replied, making a wiping gesture across her forehead.
"You don't know?" Gourry asked, little disbelievingly, but only because he'd seen the destructive capabilities of Lina's Fireball spell.
"Well, normally, a direct hit from one of my fireballs might melt iron. But..." Lina started to explain, only to be interrupted as a troll burst out of the room, knocking the door flying.
"A troll!" Lina jumped back further from her door, "This is no good!"
Gourry leaped in, sword drawn, to cut the troll's head off… only to be blocked by a slightly singed, short, grey-bearded guy's sword. It was actually an impressive block, so Gourry said as much as he looked deep into the other's eyes trying to look for a sign of weakness.
"You shouldn't underestimate your elders." The older man retorted, pushing back Gourry's blade with a surprising amount of strength and skill. "Because we just might surprise you!"
Gourry had to backpedal a few steps to keep his balance, surprising considering his massive build, but the older man wasn't thin or stringy in build, but more like a dwarf, stocky, and he knew how to use it.
Then the troll recovered and made a lunge at Gourry, forcing him to the far end of the wall… only the troll was deflected and stunned by one of Lina's spells when it crashed head-first into the wall next to Gourry.
"I'll cover you." Lina said, concentrating on some other spell to subdue the other trolls that were getting ready to exit her room.
"Alright, but don't take any chances." Gourry said as he eyed the older man.
"And here I thought you'd be grateful!" Lina said with mock indignation, or at least Gourry hoped it was.
Gourry was about to lunge back into battle when the air seemed to get thick, like molasses or something, and it felt like trying to run underwater. The sensation was also enervating on a truly frightening level, where Gourry had been fairly awake and animate he now felt like he'd been awake and running a marathon for thirty-six hours straight.
"Huh?" Gourry thought he heard Lina say.
"What's going on?" He asked, struggling with a supreme force of will to stay awake.
"It's a mind control spell." Lina explained.
"Did you do it?" Gourry asked lowering his sword and looking at Lina, he struggled to concentrate on her reply, that and to not yawn.
"No way! I mean it's an easy spell and all…" Lina continued, surveying all the trolls that were under as well as the old man, "I could only do two or three, but I have no idea who could do so many at once."
"Late night visitors…" A masculine voice said from the shadows down the hall, "can be such a nuisance, can't they?"
"Who are you?" Lina asked quickly responding to the situation, it was the question Gourry was going to ask, but he couldn't seem to open his mouth quick enough.
With that he stepped out into the light, dim as it was, and revealed himself to be a fairly tall man in what appeared to be his mid thirties wearing some rather ornate red robes and carrying a iron staff with a loop in the top.
"I couldn't help but interfere…" He said as if that explained it.
Gourry struggled with the spell, and desperately tried to say something. "Kinda like you Lina…" Gourry said, finally giving in to the urge to yawn. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the remark earned him a quick, but violent, physical reprimand from Lina.
"Quiet you!" Lina whispered at Gourry, who seemed to be more alert now that she'd backhanded him something good, then she turned back to the man and thanked him rather profusely.
"I assume you put everyone else to sleep too, right?" Lina asked.
"Ah, you could tell?" The man replied, smiling at her and nodding.
"Well, we were making a bit of a ruckus and nobody else came out of their rooms." Lina explained her deduction.
The man shrugged, "It avoids the added nuisance of having to deal with them as well… people that have no connection to this shouldn't be involved." Raising his hand he snapped his fingers and the old man with the sword and his trolls marched out of the inn. "Apparently they were sent by Zelgadiss…"
"You know him, Zelgadiss, I mean?" Lina asked.
"Yes. He is my enemy and he is attempting to resurrect Shabranigdo, the monster king."
"Shabranigdo?" Lina parroted in surprise, "The Dark Lord! Resurrected?"
"Without a doubt." The robed man confirmed, nodding grimly, "Zelgadiss is a mixture of human, golem, and brow demon… a creation of utter evil whose only wish is to revive the Dark Lord, and destroy the world."
"Why would he do something stupid like that?" Lina asked, awed that there was really someone who would destroy the world.
The robed man shook his head slowly back and forth, "That, I still cannot guess. But now he is your enemy as well as mine. I am but a humble priest, but even I cannot overlook such an evil ambition as to revive the Dark Lord."
"Yeah… I guess so, but…" Lina tried to interrupt, but the priest continued.
"Zelgadiss is after a key, the key to the Dark Lord's revival… which fate has placed into your hands. But now he will surround you with enemies to attempt to get it… You can spare yourself these troubles though, why don't you give it to me?"
"The key?" Lina asked, wondering if it was the knife or the statuette.
"Yes, the key." The priest said calmly.
Gourry wasn't entirely out of it during the whole conversation, but something about this priest gave him the creeps. Maybe it was how he never opened his eyes and just stood there with his eyes lightly shut as if about to snap open. Or maybe it was the casual manner he spoke of destroying the world…
"But then you'd have to fight them alone!" Lina protested, "And then they'd know that we'd met and come after me anyway!"
"Do not concern yourself in this. They are formidable enemies, but I, Rezo, should be able to handle them… or I don't deserve the title of 'Red Priest'."
"Rezo?" Lina exclaimed, "I thought it was you! One of the five great Wise Men of this Age! Rezo the Red Priest!"
Goury didn't know what was going on, but he didn't like it, all of a sudden Lina was acting like some rabid fan at a rock concert… what the hell was a rock concert? Gourry scratched his head, there had been an image, but it had faded like a dream after waking.
"Rezo!" Lina shrieked again.
"Well, it is the name most people call me." Rezo smiled at Lina.
"So… is he famous?" Gourry asked, knowing that if the titles were any indication that he was, but he felt that he had to divert Lina's attention… what if that mind-control thing was affecting her now?
Lina turned to him and growled "Any five-year old knows of him! I'll explain later!" then she turned back to Rezo and said, "Great priest, I insist that I retain the key."
"But…" Rezo tried to protest, but Lina continued.
"I can't back out of this! Not after hearing the Dark Lord is being revived!" Lina told the Red Priest.
"As it is they don't know we've made contact yet, if we keep the key they'll attack us again. When that happens, you can sweep in to help us defeat them."
"That will be dangerous!"" Rezo protested, "I should be the decoy."
"Please, Great Priest!" Lina demanded, "You must trust me!"
Rezo nodded once, "I understand." then he walked over to the doorway to Lina's room and chanted a spell, softly so that it would be difficult for even someone who was close, like Lina, to overhear and copy it.
"What are you…" Lina began, only to let it drop and watch a master spellsmith at work, this had to be one of his original spells! Lina felt almost giddy at the prospect of watching him preform a spell.
There was a flash of light and then Rezo turned to face Lina and Gourry once more. "From tomorrow on I will support you from the shadows behind the scenes… until next time."
Then, anti-climatically, he walked off into the shadows of the hallway again.
"So, what'd he do?" Gourry asked as he looked into Lina's room, he was feeling much better now. "Nothing's changed."
"What?" Lina ran up and pushed Gourry out of her way and looked around her room… it was immaculate. "Wow! He's good."
"Why do you say that?" Gourry asked.
"This was the room I threw my fireball into." Lina replied.
"And?" Gourry asked, careful to keep any understanding out of his voice, he rather liked teasing her… when it wasn't too painful, that is.
"Never mind." Lina said, walking out of the room, "Now go to your room, it's still night and we can get a few hours of sleep."
"Hey, where are you going?" Gourry asked as she opened the door to his room and went in.
"To bed." Came the tired reply.
"But that's my room!" Gourry informed her.
"They'll probably try to attack my room again, right?" Lina asked as she started to lay down next to the bed.
"Yeah… well, at least take the bed." Gourry said loosening his sword-belt. "I'll sleep on the floor."
"But I don't want to be a bother." Lina said in the middle of a yawn.
"Right." Gourry said as he left the room, closing the door gently, and resuming his guard duties.
• • • • • • • • • • •
Once the morning had arrived Gourry descended the stairs to the dining room to order breakfast, for both Lina and himself. It had just arrived when, looking like someone who'd slept on a rough wooden floor, Lina came down and sat at his table yawning.
Gourry looked up at her, grabbed the plate that he really wanted before she could, and asked "So, tell me about this Rizo character and that Shabu-whatsit, will you?"
"Rezo," Lina automatically corrected, grabbing some food as she started explaining, "and he's not 'some character', he's Rezo the Red Priest. He's a man of the cloth, and he carries the respect of all the great shrines and temples, who travels the lands helping and healing people. One of the Five Wise Men of this Age. However, unlike all the others, he's been blind since birth… in fact, the only thing that's bad about him is his name once belonged to a villain."
"Oh, okay.. So he goes around and helps people. What's that got to do with that Shabby-Durango guy."
Lina twitched in spite of herself. "Shabranigdo! And he's not a guy, he's a monster, the king of monsters!"
"I thought that the King of Monsters was Godzillia…" Gourry interrupted, what the heck did a giant lizard-monster have to do with any of this? Gourry wondered about that to himself and rubbed his chin in thought until Lina's punch brought him back to reality.
"That's for not taking this seriously!" Lina screamed at him.
"But I was… I think." Gourry complained, rubbing the sore spot.
"Anyway, back to Shabranigdo, the king of monsters." Lina started to explain again, then paused to grab a chicken that Gourry was going for, "Called 'Ruby-Eye' by some because of his bright red eyes, he is the lord of all the monsters on Earth…" Lina looked over at Gourry and sighed, "I think I'll start a the beginning."
"That's a good place!" Gourry said as he happily ate some bread rolls.
Lina glared at him, then continued, "Do you think you could listen to an old story?" Lina asked.
"Sure, sure…" Gourry nodded enthusiastically, though Lina had to wonder if that was because the waitress had just brought another plate of food, several bowls of soup or stew that didn't appeal to Lina all that much.
"Anyway, Gourry…" Lina tried to get his attention, rather unsuccessfully, it seemed that she was no match for the interesting powers of the Soup of The Day special. 'Ah, why bother, he's not listening anyway!' Lina thought dejectedly.
"Go on, I'm listening." Gourry cut off her train of thought.
"According to legend, long, long ago, the world we live on was thrust onto a great staff. The world exists on top of it, smooth and round… like this egg on my fork." Lina stabbed one of her fried eggs and lifted it up with her fork to illustrate her point, "Around the edge of the world two groups fought, waging their ancient battle, one was the race of monsters, and the other the race of dragons. Demons and gods, you might say. But leading them were Shabranigdo, the dark lord, and Ceiphied, the dragon god."
"That war raged on for hundreds, thousands, of years… until Ceiphied was able to split Shabranigdo into seven parts, which he then sealed here on this world."
"So, Ceiphied beat him?" Gourry asked, I mean it is kind of difficult to stay alive after being cut into seven pieces.
Lina shook her head, "No, Shabranigdo was only imprisoned."
"But you said he was split into seven pieces." Gourry emphasized his point by making several slashing motions with his butter knife, then thought better of it and tossed an apple in the air and cut it into seven pieces to demonstrate, and then eat.
"That doesn't matter… to a monster at least." Lina replied, "Although Ceiphied imprisoned him, it took all of his strength to do it…"
"Uh-huh." Gourry nodded, indicating through a mouthful of apple that he wanted to know what happened next.
"Well, a thousand years ago, one of the seven pieces of Shabranigdo was reborn." Lina continued the tale, "Fortunately one piece remained of Ceiphied, and defeated it with the help of the Water Dragon king, where it was then sealed deep within the Earth itself."
"What a meaningless battle." Gourry commented, sighing at the story. It was, of course, because neither side won, or even could win from the sounds of it.
"Well, the powers of the two beings competes savagely, and the balance of peace in this world was broken, which, in turn, gave rise to the monsters that began appearing in this world. Understand?"
Gourry looked idly at his plate and rubbed his chin, sure he understood the story… but there were many things he didn't understand. Why did the interruption of the balance of power bring monsters into existence? How did they appear? Why had they been fighting in the first place? Could either side win? Perhaps if one of the seven pieces of Shabranigdo was revived, but could the other side win even if they were never revived? "Nope, I'm afraid I don't understand it at all."
"Why am I not surprised?" Lina groaned to herself.
"But, I do know that Shaba… Shabi… Shabe… What's-his-name, is the head bad guy." Gourry nodded.
"Well, understanding that is pretty impressive for you!" Lina sniped in a low blow.
"Ow!" Gourry clutched his chest as if grabbing at an imaginary arrow and fell of his chair in mock pain.
'Well, Shabranigdo, the dark lord…' Lina thought to herself, 'I have no idea of the true extent of his powers, but they must be huge… I'd bet anything that he'll be nothing but trouble.'
Lina was brought out of her reverie by a movement, specifically the movement of Gourry taking one of her sausages. "That's my sausage!"
"Well, you were staring into space… so, obviously you didn't want it!" Gourry said, as he savored the spicy sausage flavor.
"But I did!" Lina yelled angrily as she stood up, leaned over the table, and began to shovel sausages off of Gourry's plate straight into her mouth.
"Hey! I only took one!" Gourry yelled.
"Tough!" Lina yelled back, 'accidentally' spitting sausage bits onto a chunk of bread on his plate, "Oops, got to eat that too!" She said as she snatched it before Gourry could move.
"Hey! Cut it out!" Gourry to stop her from getting any more of his breakfast.
"Well, you shouldn't ever steal someone else's food!" Lina yelled as she sat down, ripping the bread into bite size pieces and using them to mop up some gravy off her plate. "I was just teaching you a lesson."
"Right… you've always got an angle, don't you." Gourry muttered and went back to what remained of his breakfast, maybe he could recoup some of his losses at lunch time…
Author's Notes:
Well, here we are, I didn't get to make Rezo as creepy as I wanted, but oh well. I hope you enjoyed it, because I hope to breeze past the rest of this arc in a couple of chapters. Like three, but don't hold me to it! Please review if you liked it (or even if you didn't). Thanks.